blackfoot-valley

froze 86-proof whiskey.” Only 30 miles as the crow flies northeast of Helm- ville, State Highway 200 crosses the Continental Divide at 5,610 feet eleva- tion. Just this side of the pass at 5,470 feet above sea level, the all-time lowest verified temperature for the forty-eight continental United States was once recorded on an official Weather Bureau thermometer. Its fluid had with- drawn into the bulb when the observer checked it at about 2 AM on January 20, 1954. After the thermometer was sent to Washington D.C., instrumenta- tion experts at the Bureau determined that at its lowest point, to the nearest whole degree, it had reached -70 Fahrenheit. A road sign near the spot com- memorates that event. As for summer, although no official weather records are kept on the Ranch or at Helmville, highs in the 90s are uncommon, 70s and 80s are ex- pected for midsummer afternoons, or even highs only in the 60s - in a word, pleasant. To the west, Missoula is noticebly warmer in both the summer and winter than is Helmville in the Nevada Valley, due in part to the difference in elevation. (Missoula lies at about 3,200 feet compared to the Ranch head- quarters at 4,300 feet.) Missoula’s official record is -33 degrees (recorded in January, 1957); its all-time high 105 degrees (in both July and August of 1961). 38